That's because you're imagining early paper currency as a universal currency. These early promissory notes were more like coupons that were redeemed by the mer

That's because you're imagining early paper currency as a universal currency. These early promissory notes were more like coupons that were redeemed by the merchants. It didn't matter how many times a coupon was traded. As a good merchant, you knew how many of your notes you had to redeem because you're the one issuing the notes.